


Rings

by coneygoil



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 18:35:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26792251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coneygoil/pseuds/coneygoil
Summary: One morning Lydia notices something different about Carol and Daryl.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Carol Peletier
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	Rings

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a few weeks before the Caryl spin-off was announced, but just never got around to editing and posting it. I’ve been wanting to explore the idea of Daryl and Carol leaving together (and it’s amazing we’ll actually get to see that become canon!!), so I may continue this on this idea. Enjoy!

“You have rings.”

The fork halfway to Carol’s mouth froze. Her eyes flicked to Lydia across the table. The shuffle of Daryl at the kitchen counter came to a sudden halt.

“What’s that, Lydia?”

Lydia zeroed in so intently on Carol’s fingers she could have lasered them off with her stare. “You both have rings.” She gestured behind her to Daryl. “You’re wearing rings.”

How had the girl noticed so quickly?

Daryl was the first to move. He walked over from the counter to join Carol on her side of the table with his own plate of breakfast. His posture was stiff and expression unreadable, but the slight redness of his cheeks gave him away. He glanced at Carol from under the fringe of shaggy bangs.

“You wanna tell her? Or me?”

Carol shook her head. “I will.” She looked at Lydia, a warm smile finally melting the shock off her face. “Lydia, last night me and Daryl—”

“Married?” Lydia cut in. She shrank a little into herself at her own interruption, averting her eyes to the counter. “I mean, I know what the rings mean.” She cautiously looked up at them. “You’re married now?”

“Commitment,” Daryl offered up another word with the same value, “Been far too long in the making.” Years of buried longing and frustration laced his voice.

Carol nodded her agreement. Why had it taken over 10 years to confess their love? They both knew how deeply they cared for each other. It flowed through their veins like their life blood. Carol could draw a line to the first sparks of their unbreakable bond, throwing back all the way to the Greene farm with a rose in a bottle and a kiss to a wounded forehead. It could have happened then. Easily so. But, it hadn’t. Maybe the prison had been the right time. Maybe their tearful reunion after Terminus. Maybe their first weeks after arriving in Alexandria. The years together but not _together_. The years separated on different paths. No longer would being best friends be enough. No longer would longing looks and stolen moments together be enough. No longer would they ever be without each other again.

Carol reached out to touch Daryl’s arm. He met her eye and the corner of his lip curved up. She could have easily kissed him right there over their plates of scrambled eggs with Lydia as their audience. She loved him more than she could ever search the world for words.

“We exchanged rings last night on the porch. Just the two of us,” Carol explained to Lydia as she looked her way again. “It really should have happened a long time ago.” Her heart ached at just the thought.

Lydia’s brow creased in confusion. “Why didn’t it?”

“The world threw us one sh*tty scenario after another,” Daryl replied, gruffly. He kept his head bowed and worried with his scrambled eggs.

Carol sighed quietly. “We could never find peace. Every time we thought that maybe we’d finally found some peace, it was destroyed. Our paths eventually led us in different directions.”

It was a simple enough answer, but far from the deeper reasons that cut into them like a knife to the heart. Her and Daryl had confessed to each other that they both knew they didn’t deserve the love that manifested as strongly as what they felt for one another. A world this cruel wouldn’t allow such a thing for either of them. They’d lost so much. So many people they cared about. They couldn’t lose each other again – not in separation or in death. Together – never leaving each other’s side – was where they would remain until they were buried in the ground or walking around as reanimated corpses.

“But we finally found our way back.”

“Peace or war, we ain’t leavin’ each other again,” Daryl confirmed with such fierce conviction it resonated right to Carol’s soul. 

Her eyes tingled with oncoming tears she held at bay. The warmth of her smile beamed at Daryl as her memory revisited the night before on the porch in the moonlight as they exchanged vows of commitment for only their ears to hear. The love and dedication and adoration in Daryl eyes – the same way he’d always looked at her for all those years – gazing upon her now as his wife. His soulmate. His best friend.

Carol slipped a hand underneath Daryl’s hair to knead the back of his neck. “You’re stuck with me forever, Pookie.”

Daryl snorted. “Better be. I’m too damn tired to hunt your a** down one more time.”

It was meant for humor, but they both knew the hard truth behind it and it stung Carol. They were both tired. Tired of running. Tired of chasing. Tired of fighting. Tired of the whole damn world and the chaos that thrived in it. Carol vowed she would not run any longer, not without Daryl by her side. She’d use every bit of strength and willpower left within her to never break that vow to him.

Lydia watched from across the table, her eggs barely touched. Her eyes, big and concentrated, seemed to be taking in every little detail of their exchange.

“I’m glad you’re together,” she offered carefully, as if unsure if those were the right words to say.

Carol flashed a genuine smile toward Daryl then back at Lydia. “We are too.”

“About damn time,” Daryl said purposefully.

Carol’s breath caught at the feel of Daryl’s hand swiping across her back in a loving touch. It was as if electric sparks danced across her skin, even through the fabric of her shirt. All the years spent with Ezekiel, she’d never experienced such a thrill from just a single touch.

“Lydia, there’s something we need to talk to you about?” Alarm flashed in Lydia’s eyes, and Carol was quick to calm her concern. “It’s nothing bad. I promise you. Daryl and I – we’re leaving Alexandria. Leaving this area completely. We can’t stay here anymore. There’s too many memories that haunt this place. We can’t begin a life together living in the shadow of those memories.”

Lydia darted her eyes from Carol to Daryl a few times, confusion and distress clear on her features.

“We want you to come with us,” Daryl declared, “if you’ll have us.”

The distress on Lydia’s features was visible. “Am I a part of a bad memory? With Henry?”

The string in her eyes and tightness in her throat almost restricted Carol from speaking. “What happened was not your fault. Henry cared for you very much. He would have wanted you to be taken care of. To be happy and loved.”

The guilt radiating on Lydia’s face broke Carol’s heart. Maybe if Henry had never met the girl, he’d be alive. But there was no guarantee of that. Another source could have easily taken him from the world. He did care for Lydia. Everything Daryl had told her of Henry’s time with the girl pointed to that. He would have wanted her safe with people who cared.

“You don’t have family,” Daryl said, “But we can be your family.”

Lydia nodded then hung her head, seeming to contemplate over Daryl’s offer. “When are you leaving?”

“As soon as we can,” Daryl answered.

Lydia raised her eyes as the curtain of dark hair fell away from her face. “I’ll think about it.”


End file.
